I'm a weirdo, but I love a Pepsi Max with most spicy sticks. Not Pepsi, not diet Pepsi. Sounds wrong on so many levels but it works for my taste buds. Ice water for most others.
Although I prefer alcohol with cigars, in winter I like hot cider and in summer a tropical fruit juice blend on ice can be very refreshing. Generally, for me, there's a really fine line between what is perfect and what is too sweet to pair with a cigar… so even a splash of alcohol can tone down the sweetness. I also like coffee and tea with a cigar if I'm smoking earlier in the day or when alcohol consumption isn't appropriate.
I have found that I pair with coffee or whiskey. Here in Ta' Town we have a local business that roasts it own coffee. This makes it easy to pair with the different roasts.
I will normally sit down with one of 3 drinks. Water, Cola, Scotch. It seems the fuller bodied smokes I need something like cola. The acidity helps my palate reset a bit and the sugar can save you from an overdose of vitamin N. Scotch I can usually drink with anything but cameroons or other more complex med bodied sticks. Subtle flavors tend to get loss on my palate after drinking scotch. I almost always have a bottle/glass of water on standby regardless of the smoke.
Glad to hear someone else is hit an miss with beer pairings. I don't prefer beer with a cigar at any time but I have found that the hoppier the beer, the less I like it with a cigar. I like IPA and hoppy Czech beers etc. but enjoy a malty beer with a smoke more than a hoppy one. I'm looking forward to St Patty's day when we'll be seeing more red ales at the beer store since they are a favorite beer/cigar pairing for me.
Coffee is an interesting drink with cigars. On it's own, I prefer more sugar in coffee than when paired with a cigar. When permissible, I like to have "Caffè Corretto"… or correct coffee… "corrected" with a little bourbon as opposed to grappa as the Italians like it.
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